The government also revised the August figures to show a 0.3 percent increase, up from its initial report of no gain.

Stocks rose after the release of the report, which is the government’s first look at consumer spending each month. The Dow Jones industrial average climbed 87 points in afternoon trading. Broader indexes also rose.

A separate Commerce report showed that businesses added to their stockpiles for a 20th consecutive month in August while sales rose for a third straight month. The increase suggests businesses were confident enough in the economy to keep stocking their shelves.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood feigns being a blocking back for President Barack Obama as he arrives backstage to meet with GOP House leaders, January 2010

AP: Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, the most prominent Republican in President Barack Obama’s administration, accused GOP House members Friday of putting their hope for the president to fail ahead of working toward solving the nation’s problems.

Responding to a question about why it was so difficult to get big infrastructure projects built right now, LaHood told a transportation conference that “some people don’t want Obama to be successful.”

“A big percentage of the Republicans that were elected this time came here to do zero, and that’s what they’ve done,” he said. Those lawmakers, he said, have obstructed other people who are trying to get things done.

…. “Here we are almost 12 months from the election and there are some people in Congress – look there are probably 40 people, 40 Republicans, elected to the House to come here to do nothing,” Lahood said. “That’s why they felt they were elected.”

…. “When I was elected in `94 we had a very reform-minded class, 82 new people, but they came here to do something, to solve problems,” he said. “Almost always in the past when people have run for Congress, they ran for Congress on the opportunity to help solve the problems of America.”

****

Paul Krugman: Reading the transcript of Tuesday’s Republican debate on the economy is, for anyone who has actually been following economic events these past few years, like falling down a rabbit hole. Suddenly, you find yourself in a fantasy world where nothing looks or behaves the way it does in real life.

And since economic policy has to deal with the world we live in, not the fantasy world of the G.O.P.’s imagination, the prospect that one of these people may well be our next president is, frankly, terrifying.

…. the G.O.P. has responded to the crisis not by rethinking its dogma but by adopting an even cruder version of that dogma, becoming a caricature of itself. During the debate, the hosts played a clip of Ronald Reagan calling for increased revenue; today, no politician hoping to get anywhere in Reagan’s party would dare say such a thing.

It’s a terrible thing when an individual loses his or her grip on reality. But it’s much worse when the same thing happens to a whole political party, one that already has the power to block anything the president proposes — and which may soon control the whole government.

Greg Sargent: By now you may have heard about that 78-year-old grandmother who is fully against Ohio’s new push to roll back collective bargaining rights for public employees – but who had her words brazenly torn out of context and put into an ad advocating for the measure.

The tale has gone national. And now the story is about to get even bigger: The grandma is set to appear in a pro-union ad denouncing the anti-union forces as “desperate” for stealing her words. This will likely earn much more attention to a fight which is now being viewed nationally as yet another major referendum on whether the right will succeed in breaking labor in the industrial heartland.

Could this blunder by the anti-union forces be decisive? Labor hopes so….

Washington Post: As a result of stimulus spending and increased funding through the 2010 health-care law, the number of clinicians participating in a federal program to expand access to care in under-served communities has nearly tripled in the past three years.

About 10,000 doctors, nurses and other providers now participate in the National Health Serv­ice Corps, the highest number since the program was established in 1972….Officials estimated that the corps is serving about 10.5 million patients.

Ladyhawke – it’s an exceptionally good article. The data is what it is.

“In other words, in the struggle between “labor” and “capital,” capital has basically won.” And, thus, America’s national security and the well being of the majority of Americans has never been more tenuous. Comparisons to the late 1920’s are to some extent relevant, but the fact is that we live in a vastly different world than existed then, so the risk to our people and our Nation are greater – all because of GREED.

And if he did, the same loudmouths would accuse President Obama of, and question the wisdom in his unnecessarily ‘embarrassing’, ‘demonizing’ and ‘isolating’ the very pertinent business ‘partners’ he desperately needs to ‘create jobs and keep a sense of confidence’ in the market and business community…

This President cannot win with these people…

Wasn’t it interesting to watch how every single one of the usual suspects, the loudmouths all demurred in calling out Michael Bloomberg whose girlfriend is on the board of the now privately owned park..

If President Obama had tried to strong arm or evict the protesters on behalf of the billionaires like Michael Bloomberg tried to on behalf of his rich pals on wall street who are sick of the throng of unwashed masses in their neck of the woods…

Michael Moore, Russell Simmons, Lawrence O’Donnell and the rest of the hypocritical, cowardly, disingenuous herd would have called President Obama every despicable name in the book and in the most disrespectful and demeaning and dismissive tone…

For them, it would be one more reason not to take down President Obama…

How incredibly disturbing then that this very majorly aggressive move by Michael Bloomberg against OWS was glossed over and treated like a slight blimp…

Even Lawrence O’Donnell took a snippet of what in reality was a pissed and momentarily neutered Michael Bloomberg expressing his disgust and anger at local elected officials who intervened and disrupted his plans to get the protesters out – and made it seem like Bloomberg was some innocent bystander simply chiming in without any hard feelings and actually supportive of OWS…

To hear them tell it, Michael Bloomberg had absolutely nothing to do with the original plan to kick the protesters out…he was only ‘conveying’ the wishes of the park owners…

I keep hearing what the banksters did was not “illegal” before Dodd-Frank that is why the Rethugs want to dismantle it. If the house and Senate goes to the GOP because of the youngsters “purity” of their vote (they won’t vote for PBO because of the wars, etc.,) then no amount of protesting will save them. They need to vote and get politically involved to change things. Hopefully by Nov 2012 they can put their movement to good use and help rid us of the GOP Corporate shills.

No disrespect Ladyhawke, but that article is so not true. I’m almost 60 yrs old and I’ve been involved in an OWS protest only it was held in Las Vegas. Most of these kids are angry because they have been robbed of their future. They are college kids with sometimes two jobs to make ends meet. They are suffocating in debt as so many millions of Americans are. The OWS protesters are not angry over just one issue but the main focus is that WS got bailed out with their tax dollars and they’re getting absolutely nothing in return. They don’t begrudge anybody for being a millionaire or a even a billionaire, they just want WS to get out of DC. The middle class has been paying for their greed for the last 30 yrs. Something has got to be done and these protesters are not giving up…..and rightly so. I stand with them 150%! Just my two cents.

Have any of the older folks who participate in these OWS protests suggest to the young kids that the way to change policies in DC is through the ballot? Are there any drives for voter registrations at those protests? Do the kids at the OWS protests know exactly who has been fighting for Wall Street regulations and who has wanted these regulations watered down? Do they know who is still attempting to weaken the existing regulations and prevent the nomination of the consumer protections watchdog?

It’s not enough to simply protest and be angry especially if you are ill-informed of the causes of current situation you are fighting and the existing forces that serve to maintain them.

Thanks for all the info.. I sure didn’t know about Marlene- good on her for getting them back, ha!

Love the picture of POTUS sitting on the stool while President Lee is speaking.. the look on President Obama’s face is so sweet- showing a true fondness for President Lee. I missed most of the speeches today, so hopefully they’ll be around to view.

Also, I would love to see the clip ya’ll mentioned from Rev Al tonight with the autoworker.

sherijr, I am so sorry you miss that gentlemen. I hope there is some way you can see it. All I know is he would be great in a campaign ad. He spoke up for the President and how he stood by them when the Republicans wanted to toss them off the cliff.

Both Presidents appeared to be in rare form. President Lee is a very good speech writer and knows how to pump up a crowd! He appeared to really enjoy himself out there today! And of course our President Obama was excellent as usual. These two can change the world!!

Especially sitting on that stool ;) (pic 8 & 9 :shock: ). President Lee is cracking me up with that cap on :lol: , he looks like he is a funny guy hence PBO and him get along well! Glad your back Chips and catching up :).

I’ve been one of the biggest fans of Ray LaHood at Transportation, and have used his performance as more evidence of President Obama’s genius, but WTF is LaHood talking about with the Newt Gangrene-led Repub Congress in 1994?!?

LaHood and friends rode in with their horrendous Contract ON America, which was simply a roadmap for our current Teebagger lunacy, and LaHood is claiming they were more respectable back then?!? Not to mention LaHood’s leaders at the time were Newt, Tom Delay, Boner, and a whole cast of evil mental midgets who have been aggressively attacking America’s middle class ever since.

I have a Repub friend who voted for President Obama and likes him a lot still, yet he refuses to switch parties and admit he was wrong in the past voting for Shrub and similar criminals. I think it’s simply male ego and he can’t admit he was wrong, and I wonder if that’s happening with LaHood. If not, then I guess we’d better really keep an eye on this guy still. Very disappointing remarks from a guy in his specific role, has been good.

Agree about the ’94 Congress, but wasn’t LaHood talking about the “new hires”? Thought he meant the new class who entered that year, not the leaders already there that I don’t even like to think about (Gingrich, Delay, Boner).

Just clicked through to read the whole article, and perhaps you’re right and I was little harsh on the guy. Still, he did choose, as a grown adult, to continue to associate himself with those truly evil people, especially Dennis Hasturd, for 14 years. I’ll trust President Obama on this.

Yeah, but working closely with the President might have shown him what it’s like to work with a real adult who wants to get stuff done for the American people. PBO wouldn’t have chosen him if he were evil scum.

He’s having more fun in Chgo tonight, Rahm’s guest, big din with Gov. Quinn and other political and business leaders—-United and Caterpillar are 2 that were mentioned —–all interested in some more trade deals. Lots of corn and beans from Il. are also part of the deal. Good biz all the way around. (Chgo Trib)

Great catch up Chips. The event in Michigan today was just great. The workers being able to keep their jobs due to the auto bailout, GM being able to hire more people because they restructured and retooled their modus operandi, two Presidents who genuinely like, admire, and respect each other. It was a beautiful event.

It was shown on CSPAN 2. I don’t believe it was shown on either MSNBC or CNN. Immediately after PBO finished talking I switched to CNN and they were in the middle of a story about a murderer of a family being convicted. MSNBC was on commercial break.

Me Too Tien Le. I was going to make a similar comment. They look so cute together in the red car. Boys just love those wheels. I find the genuine affection between President Obama and President Lee just delightful. It fills me with pride to see President Obama admired and respected by foreign leaders.

I love the imagery of PBO and President Lee behaving in a casual manner, but with professionalism and dignity. Folks we are certainly living in a golden time in our nations history. The future is bright. Our job is to get the majority of Americans to understand that. Keep Hope Alive!!!

Beautiful Pictures!!! Thanks Chips….You can tell these 2 are good friends, as President Lee was saying last night at the State Dinner….He knew PBO way before he was President…and became really close with the entire family, So he was delighted to come invited by PBO..and how the Korean teachers love him more than him….LOL because PBO always mentions Korea when he speaks of education. What a proud moment for our President:-)

THE WORLD LOVES OBAMA!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WE ARE TRULY BLESSED TO HAVE SUCH GREAT LEADER:-):-)